In A Word
by JESUSFREAK-And-Proud-Of-It
Summary: Inner thoughts and fears of the GAang. Series of one-shots. R&R. Recently Re-posted.
1. Together

This is a series of short one-shots, when the group is at the western air temple. Each of the sections focuses on a particular person in the original four of the GAang, and their inner thoughts and fears.

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing. God owns all!

The temple was quiet. Despite the fact that it once again housed living inhabitants, it was as still and silent as the days after death had descended on the airbending nuns nearly a century ago.

The gaang and their newer companions slumbered around Appa, who snored contentedly, Aang and Momo curled up together on his head. The airbender was at home with his two animal companions. They connected to one another in a sort of way that could not be achieved by any other relationship they would have in the future, being were the last of the air nomads world...

The distinct forms of the two water tribe siblings lay at Appa's side. While Sokka snored incessantly inside his bedroll, his sister's softer breaths were harder to distinguish. Brother and sister. They _were _family, the identical gleam in their eyes and mannerisms told anyone that. Of course, each of them interpreted those similar habits in their own ways, accentuating their individuality. No one would mistake one for the other, even if their appearances were the exact same. Sokka had a distinct commanding air about him, which was affectionately misread by his younger sibling as his 'control-freakiness.' Likewise, Katara's 'control-freak' side was portrayed through her motherliness, and the fierceness in which she so boldly defended and protected her friends.

On the same side of the bison, lying in a fetal position on the ground without a sleeping bag of any kind, was Toph, snoring, but not quite as loud as the top pair. Her arm was tucked under her head as a support, and her knees were pulled up to her chest. The mighty earthbender looked so different than she appeared in the waking world. She was small, vulnerable, and desperately fighting to cover up the tide of emotion that threatened to overturn her mask of sarcastic indifference. It was this mask that made her essentially who she was, or at least who the others believed her to be.

The group, in its entirety, was a group of lost souls looking for a place to belong. And they had found their place among each other, a motley crew of people bent on the same goal. Defeating the Fire Lord and ultimately destabilizing the war. That was the ultimate achievement every one of them wished for, they had all lost too much because of it, and they were ready to face their adversary together, side-by-side, forming a wall of such force that each individual weakness, each stone that was cracked or crumbling, was 

supported by strong blocks of steel surrounding it and keeping the wall sturdy and unbreakable. Without that support, each of them would fall apart. Together they persevere, divided they are lost among the rubble of their own wishes and hopes. Rays of sunlight dawn on a new era. Are they ready for it?


	2. Failure

**Failure **

_Aang inhaled slowly. He sat in a meditative position, his steel-blue eyes closed and his palms pressed together as he breathed steadily._

_In..._

_Out..._

_In..._

_Out..._

_In..._

_Suddenly the air seemed to grow oppressively warm, and beads of sweat formed on the airbender's shaved head and he exhaled in a rush of wind._

_He opened his eyes, blinking in surprise when his field of vision displayed but orange. Flames of red and yellow roared and crackled overhead, and waves of heat whooshed full into Aang's face, shocking and stunning him. Smoke rose above him in a sky of black, and the ring of fire crept ever closer to engulfing him._

_"You won't escape..." A distinct, familiar voice._

_"Avatar Roku!" The airbender shouted in desperation. "Help me!"_

_"You've been cut off..."_

_"Cut off?! Roku!" Aang's voice was weak and pleading as the confusion and fear welled up inside him._

_"None of us can help you..."_

_The airbender covered his face with a gasp of terror and a fit of horrified coughing as the flames singed his sleeves and licked toward his skin hungrily._

_"You are alone now, Aang...you've failed me...you've failed the world...without you there is no hope...no life..."_

_"AAAAAAHHHHH!"_


	3. Injuries

**Injuries**

_Katara was surrounded by a fog as thick as if sunken deep in a bank of snow. She waded in still, murky water that soaked her up to mid-thigh. "Hello?" she cried out, confused and disoriented. "Sokka? Aang? Toph? Anyone there?"_

_She could faintly discern three figures sitting waist-deep in the water not far from her current position. _

_The waterbender hurried toward them, sloshing and stumbling with haste as she recognized them as her friends. They were sitting in a solemn line, facing away from her._

_"Thank goodness I found you guys," her voice was full of relief as she gripped Aang's shoulder and moved to face him._

_A shriek of horror tore from her lips and she released Aang's shoulder in a moment of sheer panic. _

_He had no eyes._

_Dark, bottomless sockets glittered evilly from all three of her friends' skulls, and Katara shouted in terror once more as all three fell back into the water, their bodies submerged into the black depths._

_The waterbender suddenly found herself swallowed by her own element, drowning in the cold, heartless deeps of the sea._

_She heard Hama's voice echoing cruelly in her head as she helplessly thrashed..._

_"You're a BLOODbender!"_

_"No!" she choked out, water rushing into her open mouth and preventing her from saying more._

_She floundered in the bottomless ocean, her saturated clothing pulling her ever downward, but she was powerless to get them off. Her struggle seemed to last forever, her oxygen-deprived lungs screaming desperately for air._

_When the waterbender slipped into black unconsciousness, it was a welcome alternative to the agony of the pressure and airlessness as she sank. The _

_last thing she was aware of before passing out was a distinct and painful 'pop' of her ears._

_"My work here is finished."_


	4. Defiance

**Defiance **

_Sokka moved stealthily through the underbrush, so silently that even a mole-mouse beneath his feet wasn't aware of the warrior's present as he passed. His meteorite sword he held in his fist, drawn and ready. _

_The water tribe warrior suddenly found himself peering from behind a large shrub into the GAang's camp. The shrub he crouched behind suddenly wasn't a shrub...it dissolved and became a large boulder. Sokka placed a hand on it suspiciously. _That's odd, _he thought._

_A loud crashing noise and a shout of fear interrupted the warrior's contemplation. His attention jerked back to the scene in front of him. _

_Katara sat on the ground, clutching her burned arm, her eyes blazing with anger and tears. Crouched in their earthbending stances, protecting her, stood Aang and Toph._

_Across from them, standing with his back to the boulder that Sokka hid behind...was Zuko._

_The prince's palms were lit and his whole body screamed, I HATE YOU AND I CAN PROVE IT!_

_Just as Zuko was shooting another jet of flame at his friends, Sokka roared with fury and he leapt from his hiding place, his sword held out in front of him._

_But suddenly the warrior was wrenched backwards, and when he struggled to break free, with a gasp of terror discovered that he was immobile, held in place with some unseen force. Though he struggled, he was unable to even turn his head from the horrible carnage that was taking place before his eyes. _

_Aang had been thrown back, and Toph punched a rock toward Zuko, but it incinerated before reaching the target._

_"How is that _possible?" _Sokka was bewildered that fire could completely consume _stone _in that manner. _

_Katara lay unconscious on the ground and no more than a heartbeat passed before Toph...the greatest earthbender on earth...joined her in oblivion._

_Sokka's head turned suddenly, not of his own regard, and he saw Aang, his tattoos and eyes glowing, in the fledging Avatar State, and the water tribe's cry of triumph that ripped from his throat was twisted into a gasp of horror as lightning cracked from Zuko's fingertips and Aang, the last and only great hope for the world, fell to the ground, to rise no more._

_Sokka heard a screech of anger and surprisingly realized it was coming from _him. _He lunged forward; seemingly breaking his invisible bonds, and fell upon his adversary like a creature of prey._

_The warrior slashed and stabbed at the exiled prince, but it infuriatingly seemed to have no effect whatsoever._

_Zuko laughed. It was a cold, heartless, _evil _laugh, and it chilled Sokka to the bone._

_From Zuko's mouth came a spine-chilling, mocking voice that wasn't his, "They needed you and you never came. You're no warrior. Just a weak, pitiful excuse for a peasant."The Water Tribe warrior hissed angrily, only faintly wondering why the prince's voice sounded like Azula. _

_Sokka yelled in the firebender's face, swinging his sword to behead the prince, but the blow passed through his neck as if he was a ghost. "You never _were _on our side, you lying, cheating, scum-sucking, silver-tongued son of Koh!"_

_Zuko just laughed as the water tribe warrior desperately tried to stab him with the sword, and the space rock blade passed right through him. "This. Is. Not. REALITY!" The warrior pummeled Zuko's head with his blade...to no avail._

_The prince's fists lit with a white flame, and he spun and slashed at Sokka's face with the fire-daggers._

_With a strangled cry of pain, Sokka fell, and just before he lost consciousness, he heard Zuko's snarling voice in his ear._

_"You're not a bender. You're worthless to the Avatar's group as well as to the enemy!"_

_The warrior, in a last desperate attempt, swung his fist upward, and heard a satisfying crack as it connected with Zuko's chin, the first blow that had been effective, in fact used no weapons or elements at all._

_Sokka grinned in defiance and said as his vision blurred and he disappeared into swimming blackness..._

_"I bet that'll leave a mark!"_


	5. Strong

**Strong**

_Toph stomped the stone beneath her feet and huge boulder erupted from the ground. With a bound, she sent it flying toward her blindfolded pupil._

_Aang 'caught' the boulder and crushed it simultaneously, slamming it into dust that drifted away on the breeze._

_Toph only grunted in response of the airbender-turned-earthbender's expertise and redoubled her efforts. Her second attack was met with nearly the same defense, as well as the next few._

_"Change up your moves, Twinkletoes!" She shouted as she sent another stone flying his way._

_"Why?" he shouted back as he deflected her blow easily. "You're so predictable!"_

_"WHAT?!"_

_The metalbender snapped at the insult, and began a barrage of intricate moves, sending rocks of every size shooting toward Aang, who smashed each one of them with the same defense. It bewildered and infuriated the earthbender, but suddenly she heard a voice that stunned her even more._

_"You're tiny, helpless, fragile!"_

_"Mother?" Toph was shocked. She couldn't discern any shape nearby that even remotely represented the woman she so despised, yet loved with all her heart at the same time._

_"Toph..."_

_"Mom! Where are you? What are you doing here?" Suddenly the world seemed to go ominously black. The Blind Bandit could no longer sense the Avatar, or anything at all nearby. Though she could feel the ground beneath her bare feet, she couldn't gather any information from it. She blinked her sightless eyes with fear and fury._

_"Aang? Katara? Sokka? Mom? _Anyone? _This _isn't _funny!"_

_"Helpless..."_

_"Sokka?"_

_"So tiny..."_

_"Katara? Where are you?!"_

_"A little girl..."_

_"Aang! Where the heck are you guys? Why are you doing this to me!?"_

_A hand descended on her shoulder, and she spun around with surprise, her fists clenching with uncontrolled rage._

_"Come on, Toph...come back home, where it's safe...you're blind, you shouldn't be out here..."_

_The metalbender's voice squealed very uncharacteristically with fury, "My place is here! I belong here more than I _ever_ belonged at home! How can you dare even _try _to take me back there! All you want is to keep me under your wing, hidden from the world, so your _crippled _daughter won't disgrace you!"_

_"Come back, Toph...we miss you and we love you..."_

_"No you DON'T, and you never DID! You don't understand the agony you and Dad put me through! Joining Aang was the best decision I ever made! They're my friends, and they like me for who I _am, _I don't have to pretend to be something else to please them! They're more my family then you _ever _were!"_

_Toph was shaking, out of fear or anger, even _she _couldn't tell. All she could feel was that after she confessed that fact to her mother, whether she was real or just a ghost from her imagination, she felt elated, almost like the time at the rendezvous island, when she, Aang, Sokka, and Katara had been talking. They _were _a family, despite their different lives, backgrounds, and struggles. They had come together for one purpose...one goal, and had become an adopted family in the process. Split nations had become whole, destines and lives were now fused. In the days to come, that very advantage would lead them to victory._

A/N: I hope I didn't make you guys suffer too much with my incessant (I love that word, seriously!) rambling. I normally don't have author notes at the bottom, but, I decided to remind u to review! Hit that button! Come on, I dare ya'!


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